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Happy Birthday to Gato!

On Monday April 4th 2011, our little man turns 6 years old. I didn’t know him very well the first couple of years, but he has definitely been a big part of my life the past four years. Because I didn’t grow up with companion animals, I never realized how attached you get to them, and how much they really are part of the family. Gato is definitely another person here in the Brideau household – well at least we talk to him like he is. I’m not sure what we have in store for him on his birthday, probably some sort of food surprise, but I am sure he will enjoy it. Since everyone always asks about him, I figured I’d post a few pictures of a day in the life of our little buddy.

When we head off to work in the morning, if he isn’t busy looking out the back window and mentally chasing after birds and squirrels, he’s definitely asleep on the cat shelf that comes off of the windowsill.

I’m not exactly sure what he does all day, but I have a good feeling it involves plenty of sleeping, just as he is doing above. He has managed to work out that the warmest floor in the house is the one right above the hot water pipes, and I put a pillow down because he would sleep here so often. He’s totally passed out in this one.

Very often when we return home from work he greets us at the door, and then immediately goes with this move as a way to entice us to pet him and give a good belly rub. It works every time, even on visitors.

Sometimes if he’s lucky during the day we’ll let him sample some of the food we are eating. Here he’s doing his best work on an empty yogurt cup and trying to not get his face stuck.

Naturally, after he has eaten he gets really playful. We are convinced that he has a very active imagination, because we certainly do not understand the games he plays. He runs all over the place, making noises, sometimes chasing his tail, and sometimes just setting up shop getting ready for an ambush as pictured above.

Of course all that running around cannot last forever. Gato eventually gets tired and needs to catch up on sleep. The picture above is pretty amazing actually. Not that it is a spectacular piece of work, but that it has taken him 10 months to finally realize that the animal pelt we have on the floor isn’t actually scary but is really soft and warm. This is the first time he has slept on it, and in fact, Chelsea is asleep upstairs and won’t believe me until she sees this. I guess cats are even more like people than we thought, they also get wiser with age. Happy Birthday Gato!